Supercharger

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Jump to: navigation, search For other meanings, see supercharger (disambiguation) A supercharger (also known as a blower) is an air compressor used to force more air (and hence more oxygen) into the com ustion cham er(s) of an internal com ustion engine than can e achieved at am ient atmospheric pressure! "he additional mass of oxygen#containing air that is forced into the engine improves on its volumetric efficiency which allows it to urn more fuel in a given cycle # which in turn makes it produce more power! A supercharger can e powered mechanically y elt, gear, or chain#drive from the engine$s crankshaft! %t can also e driven y a gas tur ine powered y the exhaust gases from the engine! "ur ine#driven superchargers are correctly referred to as tur o#superchargers # or more commonly as tur ochargers!

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( "ypes of supercharger o (!( )ositive displacement o (!* +ynamic o (!, -upercharger drive types * Automo iles o *!( -upercharging and "ur ocharging o *!* -e.uential, "win and /ompound tur ochargers , Aircraft o ,!( Altitude effects o ,!* "wo#stage and two#speed superchargers o ,!, /omparison to tur ocharging o ,!0 1ffects of fuel octane rating 0 -ee Also 2 3eferences 4 1xternal links

[edit] Types of supercharger

"here are two main types of supercharger defined according to the method of compression, positive displacement and dynamic compressors! "he former deliver a fairly constant level of oost regardless of engine speed (3)5), whereas the later deliver increasing oost with increasing engine speed!

[edit] Positive displacement

An 1aton 54* 3oots#type supercharger is visi le at the front of this 1cotec 6-J engine in a *774 -aturn %89 3ed 6ine

6ysholm screw rotors! 9ote the complex shape of each rotor which must run at high speed and with close tolerances! "his makes this type of supercharger .uite expensive! ("his unit has een lued to show close contact areas) )ositive displacement pumps deliver a nearly fixed volume of air per revolution at all speeds (minus leakage which is nearly constant at all speeds for a given pressure and so its importance decreases at higher speeds)! "he device divides the air mechanically into parcels for delivery to the engine, mechanically moving the air into the engine it y it! 5a:or types of positive displacement pumps include:

3oots 6ysholm screw -liding ;ane -croll#type supercharger, also known as the <#lader )iston Wankel

)ositive displacement pumps are further divided into internal compression and external compression types!

3oots superchargers are typically external compression only (although high helix roots lowers attempt to emulate the internal compression of the 6ysholm screw)!

1xternal compression refers to pumps which transfer air at am ient pressure into the engine! %f the engine is running under oost conditions, the pressure in the intake manifold is higher than that coming from the supercharger! "hat causes a ack flow from the engine into the supercharger until the two reach e.uili rium! %t is the ack flow which actually compresses the incoming gas! "his is a highly inefficient process and the main factor in the lack of efficiency of roots superchargers when used at high oost levels! "he lower the oost level the smaller is this loss and roots lowers are very efficient at moving air at low pressure differentials, which is what they were first invented for (hence the original term = lower=)!

All the other types have some degree of internal compression!

%nternal compression refers to the air eing compressed within the supercharger itself and this compressed air, already at or close to oost level, can e delivered smoothly to the engine with little or no ackflow! "his is more efficient than ackflow compression and allows higher efficiency to e achieved! %nternal compression devices usually use a fixed internal compression ratio! When the oost pressure is e.ual to the compression pressure of the supercharger, the ackflow is >ero! %f the oost pressure exceeds that compression pressure, ackflow can still occur as in a roots lower! %nternal compression lowers must e matched to the expected oost pressure in order to achieve the higher efficiency they are capa le of, otherwise they will suffer the same pro lems and low efficiency of the roots lowers!

)ositive displacement superchargers are usually rated y their capacity per revolution! %n the case of the roots lower, the <5/ rating pattern is typical! "he <5/ types are rated according to how many two stroke cylinders, and the si>e of those cylinders, it is designed to scavenge! <5/ has made *#?( ,#?( 0#?( and the famed 4#?( lowers! For example a 4#?( lower is designed to scavenge 4 cylinders of ?( cu ic inches each and would e used on a two#stroke diesel of 0*4 cu ic inches which is designated a 4#?( and the lower takes this same designation! @owever ecause 4#?( is actually the engines designation,the actual displacement is less than the simple multiplication would suggest! A 4#?( actually pumps ,,A cu ic inches per revolution! Aftermarket derivatives continue the trend with B#?( to current (0#?( lowers! From this you can see that a 4#?( is roughly twice the si>e of a ,#?(! <5/ also made #2, cu ic inch series in *,,,0,4 and B#2, si>es as well as a C;?(D series for use on engines using a ; configuration!

Roots Supercharger Efficiency Map! "his generali>ed roots lower efficiency map shows how a roots lower$s efficiency varies with speed and oost! Roots Efficiency map For any given roots lower running under given conditions, a single point will fall on the map! "his point will rise with increasing oost and will move to the right with increasing lower speed! %t can e seen that at moderate speed and low oost the efficiency can e over A7E! "his is the area in which roots lowers were originally intended to operate and they are very good at it! Foost is given in terms of pressure ratio which is the ratio of a solute air pressure efore the lower to the a solute air pressure after compression y the lower! %f no oost is present the pressure ratio will e (!7 (meaning (:() as the outlet pressure e.uals the inlet pressure! (2 psi oost is marked for reference (slightly a ove a pressure ratio of *!7 compared to atmospheric pressure)! At (2 psi oost 3oots lowers hover etween 27E to 2BE! 3eplacing a smaller lower with a larger lower moves the point to the left! %n most cases, as the map shows, this will moves it into higher efficiency areas on the left as the smaller lower likely will have een running fast on the right of the chart! Gsually, using a larger lower and running it slower to achieve the same oost will give an increase in compressor efficiency! "he volumetric efficiency of the roots type lower is very good! Gsually staying a ove A7E at all ut the lowest lower speeds! Fecause of this, even a lower running at low efficiency will still mechanically deliver the intended volume of air to the engine ut that air will e hotter! %n drag racing applications where large volumes of fuel are in:ected with that hot air, vapori>ing the fuel a sor s the heat! "his functions as a kind of li.uid after cooler system!

[edit] ynamic

+ynamic compressors rely on accelerating the air to high speed and then exchanging that velocity for pressure y diffusing or slowing it down! 5a:or types of dynamic compressor are:

/entrifugal 5ulti stage axial flow

#/omprex superchargers do not fit neatly into either dynamic or positive displacement categories! "he /omprex design uses the exhaust gas to directly compress the incoming charge!

[edit] Supercharger drive types

-uperchargers are further defined according to their method of drive (mechanical # or tur ine)! 5echanical:

Felt(; elt, "oothed elt, Flat elt) +irect drive <ear drive /hain drive

1xhaust gas tur ines:

Axial tur ine 3adial tur ine

All types of compressor may e mated to and driven y either gas tur ine or mechanical linkage! +ynamic compressors are most often matched with gas tur ine drives due to their similar high#speed characteristics, while positive displacement pumps usually use one of the mechanical drives! @owever, all of the possi le com inations have een tried with various levels of success!

[edit] !utomobiles

(A*A =Flower= Fentley from the 3alph 6auren collection! "he large = lower= (supercharger) is located at the front, in front of the radiator, and gave the car its name! %n cars, the device is used to increase the =effective displacement= and volumetric efficiency of an engine, and is often referred to as a blower! Fy pushing the air into the cylinders, it is as if the engine had larger valves and cylinders, resulting in a =larger= engine that weighs less! %n (A77 <ottlie +aimler (of +aimler#Fen> H +aimler#/hrysler fame) ecame the first person to patent a forced#induction system for internal com ustion engines! @is first superchargers were ased on a twin#rotor air#pump design first patented y American Francis 3oots in (B47! "his design is the asis for the modern 3oots type supercharger! %t wasn$t long efore the supercharger was applied to custom racing cars, with the first supercharged production vehicles eing uilt y 5ercedes and Fentley in the (A*7s! -ince then superchargers (as well as tur ochargers) have een widely applied to oth racing and production cars, although their complexity and cost have largely relegated the supercharger to pricey performance cars! Foosting, or adding a supercharger to a stock naturally#aspirated engine, has made a come ack in recent years due largely to the increased .uality of the alloys and machining used in modern engines! %n the past, oosting would dramatically shorten engine life due to the extreme temperature and pressure created y the supercharger, ut modern engines produced with modern materials provide considera le overdesignI thus, oosting is no longer a serious relia ility concern! For this reason oosting is commonly used in smaller cars, where the added weight of the supercharger is less than the weight of a larger engine delivering the same amount of power! "his also results in etter gas mileage, as mileage is often a function of the overall weight of the car, a si>ea le percentage of which is weight of the engine! 9evertheless, adding oost to a car will often void the drivetrain warranty! Also, improperly installed or excessive oost will greatly reduce the life expectancy of the engine, the differential and transmission (which may not have een designed to cope with additional tor.ue)!

[edit] Supercharging and Turbocharging

"he term supercharging technically refers to any pump that forces air into an engine # ut in common usage, it refers to pumps that are driven directly y the engine as opposed to tur ochargers that are driven y the pressure of the exhaust gases! )ositive displacement superchargers may a sor as much as a third of the total crankshaft power of the engine, and in many applications are less efficient than tur ochargers! %n applications where engine response and power is more important than any other consideration, such as top#fuel dragsters and vehicles used in tractor pulling competitions, positive displacement superchargers are extremely common! -uperchargers are generally the reason why tuned engines have a distinct high#pitched whine upon acceleration!

"here are three main styles of supercharger for automotive use:

/entrifugal tur ochargers # driven from exhaust gasses! /entrifugal superchargers # driven directly y the engine via a elt#drive! )ositive displacement pumps (such as the 3oots and the 6ysholm (Whipple) lowers)!

"he thermal efficiency, or fraction of the fuelHair energy that is converted to output power, is less with a mechanically driven supercharger than with a tur ocharger, ecause tur ochargers are using energy from the exhaust gases that would normally e wasted! For this reason, oth the economy and the power of a tur ocharged engine are usually etter than with superchargers! "he main advantage of an engine with a mechanically driven supercharger is etter throttle response, as well as the a ility to reach full oost pressure instantaneously! With the latest "ur o /harging technology, throttle response on tur ocharged cars is nearly as good as with mechanical powered superchargers, ut the existing lag time is still considered a ma:or draw ack! 1specially considering that the vast ma:ority of mechanically driven superchargers are now driven off clutched pulleys, much like an air compressor! 3oots lowers tend to e 07#27E efficient at high oost levels! /entrifugal -uperchargers are ?7#B2E efficient! "he 6ysholm style lowers can e nearly as efficient as their /entrifugal counterparts over a narrow range of loadHspeedH oost, for which the system must e specifically designed! Jeeping the air that enters the engine cool is an important part of the design of oth superchargers and tur ochargers! /ompressing air makes it hotter # so it is common to use a small radiator called an intercooler etween the pump and the engine to reduce the temperature of the air! )icking any method of compression that cannot support the mass of airflow needed for the engine creates excessive heat in the airHfuel charge temperatures! "his is true with all forms of supercharging! %t is critical to not undersi>e the component! "ur ochargers also suffer (to a greater or lesser extent) from so#called turbo-lag in which initial acceleration from low 3)5s is limited y the lack of sufficient exhaust gas pressure! 8nce engine 3)5 is sufficient to start the tur o spinning, there is a rapid increase in power as higher tur o oost causes more exhaust gas production # which spins the tur o yet faster, leading to a elated =surge= of acceleration! "his makes the maintenance of smoothly increasing 3)5 far harder with tur ochargers than with elt#driven superchargers which apply oost in direct proportion to the engine 3)5! "ur o#lag is often confused with the term "ur o#spool! "ur o 6ag refers to how long it takes to spool the tur o when there is sufficient engine speed to create oost! "his is greatly affected y the specifications of the tur ocharger! %f the tur ocharger is too large for the power and that is desired, needless time will e wasted trying to spool the tur ocharger!

Fy correctly choosing a tur ocharger for its use, response time can e improved to the point of eing nearly instant! 5any well#matched tur ochargers can provide oost at cruising speeds! /entrifugal tur ochargers suffer from a form of tur o spool! +ue to the fact that the tur ine speed is directly proportional to the 3)5, pressure and flow output at low 3)5 is limited, thus it is possi le for the demand to outweigh the supply and a vacuum is created until the tur ine reaches its compression threshold!

[edit] Se"uential# Twin and Compound turbochargers

5any efforts have een made to mitigate the effects of tur o#lag in exhaust#driven tur ochargers! -e.uential "ur o /harging was used on the "oyota -upra! "he 5J%; "oyota -upra uses two e.ually si>ed tur os! At low 3)5s the exhaust gas is flowed through solely the first tur o! 8nce the oost pressure reaches a pre#set level, the exhaust gas flow is directed through oth tur os e.ually! "hese two small tur os are then operating in parallel! An alternative arrangement utili>es two tur ochargers of the same si>e, known as a ="win#tur o=! "win "ur o /harging can make more power than a single tur o of the same output for two reasons! 8ne is the lower rotating mass of two smaller tur os versus one large tur o, which allows the compressor to spin up to speed much more .uickly! "he second is the increased exhaust outlet area availa le for the exhaust gas to flow out of the twin tur o exhaust manifold! %ncreased exhaust flow will increase power in most situations! Another style of tur o charging is called =/ompound "ur o charging=! "his is gaining popularity for diesel engines! "ractor engines which compete in tractor pulling use compound tur o charging in some classes! /ompound "ur o /harging can create oost levels a ove *77psig! /ompound tur ochargers are set up in various fashions! "he most popular set up is to use one smaller and one larger tur o! "he larger tur o compressor lows into the smaller tur o compressor! "he exhaust is set up to first enter the tur ine of the smaller tur o, and then into the tur ine of the larger tur o! /ompound "ur o /harging has little =tur o lag= and can create high power levels! "here are also acts of com ining oth tur ocharging, and a positive displacement supercharger! Fy compressing air first in the tur ocharger, and feeding it to the supercharger! Fy running more compression in the tur ocharger, efficiency is improved as superchargers are less efficient! -till other com inations are possi le # there are after#market kits for several supercharged cars to add a tur ocharger either efore, after or in parallel with the supercharger! %n this manner the supercharger operates alone at lower 3)5s and the tur o either takes over from # or adds to the supercharger once there is sufficient exhaust gas pressure availa le!

[edit] !ircraft

A more natural use of the supercharger is with aircraft engines! As an aircraft clim s to higher altitudes the pressure of the surrounding air .uickly falls off! At 4777 m ((B,777 ft) the air is at half the pressure of sea level, and the airframe only experiences half the aerodynamic drag!@owever, since the charge in the cylinders is eing pushed in y this air pressure it means that the engine will normally produce only half#power at full throttle at this altitude! )ilots would like to take advantage of the low drag at high altitudes in order to go faster, ut a naturally aspirated engine will not produce enough power at the same altitude to do so!

[edit] !ltitude effects

A 3olls 3oyce 5erlin engine A supercharger remedies this pro lem y compressing the air ack to sea#level pressuresI or even much higherI in order to produce rated power at high altitude! "he pilot controls the output of the supercharger with the throttle and the propeller governor control! -ince the si>e of the supercharger is chosen to produce a given amount of pressure at high altitude, the supercharger is oversi>ed for low altitude! "he pilot must e careful with the throttle and watch the manifold pressure gauge to avoid over oosting at low altitude! As the aircraft clim s and the air density drops, the pilot must continually open the throttle in small increments to maintain full power! "he altitude at which the throttle reaches full open and the engine is still producing full rated power is known as the critical altitude. "he downside of supercharging is that compressing the air increases its temperature! When a supercharger is used on an aircraft, manifold air temperature ecomes a ma:or limiting factor in engine performance, as extreme temperatures will cause pre#ignition andHor detonation of the fuel#air mixture and damage to the engine! "his caused a pro lem at low altitudes, where the air is oth denser and warmer than at high altitudes! )ilots were taught to watch their manifold pressure gauge and not push it past redline, yet the manifold pressure gauge ignores the effect of temperature on engine performance and life! -everal solutions to this pro lem were developed: intercoolers and aftercoolers, anti#detonant in:ection, two#speed superchargers, and two#stage superchargers!

[edit] Two$stage and two$speed superchargers

%n the (A,7s two#speed drives were developed for superchargers! "hese provided more flexi ility for the operation of the aircraft although they also entailed more complexity of manufacturing and maintenance! "he gears connected the supercharger

to the engine using a system of hydraulic clutches which were manually engaged or disengaged y the pilot with a control in the cockpit! At low altitudes the low#speed gear would e used in order to keep the manifold temperatures low! At around (*,777 feet, when the throttle was full forward and the manifold pressure started to drop off, the pilot would retard the throttle and switch to the higher gear, then read:ust the throttle to the desired manifold pressure! Another way to accomplish the same level of control was the use of two compressors in series! After the air was compressed in the low pressure stage the air flowed through an intercooler radiator where it was cooled efore eing compressed again y the high pressure stage and then aftercooled in another heat exchanger! %n these systems damper doors could e opened or closed y the pilot to ypass one stage as needed! -ome systems had a cockpit control to open or close a damper to the intercoolerHaftercooler, providing another way to control temperature! "he most complex systems used a two#speed, two#stage system with oth an intercooler and an aftercooler, ut these were found to e prohi itively costly and complicated! Gltimately it was found that for most engines (excepting those in high#performance fighters) a single#stage two#speed setup was most suita le!

[edit] Comparison to turbocharging

%t is interesting to compare all of this complexity to the same system implemented with a tur ocharger! A supercharger inevita ly re.uires some energy to e led from the engine to drive the supercharger! 8n the single#stage single#speed supercharged 3olls 3oyce 5erlin engine for instance, the supercharger uses up a out (27 horsepower (((7 kW)! Ket the enefits outweigh the costs, for that (27 hp (((7 kW) lost, the engine is delivering (777 hp (?27 kW) when it would otherwise deliver ?27 hp (247 kW), a net improvement of *27 hp! 8n the other hand, a tur ocharger is driven using the exhaust gasses! -imply ypassing some of the exhaust pressure to flow through the tur ine is sufficient to drive the compressor at almost any desired speed! %n addition the power in the exhaust would otherwise e wasted (except to the extent that the exhaust itself provided thrust) whereas in the supercharger that power is eing taken directly from the engine! "hus at low altitudes the tur o ro s nothing and, as the altitude increases, it can use :ust as much power as it needs and no more! Fetter yet the amount of power in the gas is the difference etween the exhaust pressure and air pressure, which increases with altitude, so tur ochargers generally have much etter altitude performance! Ket the vast ma:ority of WW%% engines used superchargers, ecause they maintained three significant manufacturing advantages over tur ochargers, which were larger, involved extra piping, and re.uired exotic high#temperature materials in the tur ine! "he si>e of the piping alone is a serious issueI consider that the ;ought F0G and 3epu lic )#0? used the same engine ut the huge arrel#like fuselage of the latter was, in part, needed to hold the piping to and from the tur ocharger in the rear of the plane! "oday, most general aviation aircraft are naturally aspirated! "he small num er of modern aviation piston engines designed to run at high altitudes generally use a tur ocharger or tur o#normali>er system rather than a supercharger!

[edit] Effects of fuel octane rating

)rior to the opening of WW%%, all automo ile and aviation fuel was generally rated at B? octane! "his was the rating that was achieved y the simple distillation of =light crude= oil, and was therefore the cheapest possi le fuel! 1ngines from around the world were designed to work with this grade of fuel, which set a limit to the amount of oosting that could e provided y the supercharger! 3esearch into =octane oosting= via additives was an ongoing line of research at the time! Gsing these techni.ues, less valua le crude could still supply large amounts of useful gasoline, which made it a valua le economic process! Fut the additives did not have to simply make poor .uality oil into B? octane gasolineI the same additives could also e used to oost the resulting gasoline to much higher octane ratings! @igher octane fuel urns slower at the same temperature as low octane fuel, reducing the risk of detonation! As a result, the amount of oost supplied y the superchargers could e increased! %n (A07 a atch of (77 octane fuel was delivered from the G-A to the 3AF! "his allowed the oost on 5erlin engines to e increased to 0B in@g ((47 k)a) and the power to rise y more than (7E (from (7,7 to ((47 hp, or ??7 to B?7 kW)! Fy mid#(A07 another increased oost yielded (,(7 hp (AB7 kW)! -upercharging y itself could not have achieved these improvementsI however, when married with fuel improvements, the engine could respond to oth! Fy the end of the war fuel was eing delivered at a nominal (27 octane rating, on which the 5erlin could reach a out (,?77 hp, and with additional water in:ection, as high as *777 hp! %n comparison the <erman oil industry had ready access to light crude from 3omania and other 1uropean sources, and spent very little effort on octane oosting techni.ues! As a result their engines were all rated to use =F*= fuel at B? octane, or the slightly higher A4 octane =/,=! "his limited the amount of oost they could use with their supercharger, which initially were of a higher level of development than their 1nglish counterparts! Fy (A0( the altitude advantage they had at the eginning of the war was erased, and as the war progressed their engines fell further and further ehind! "heir only solution was to uild much larger engines, there y constantly disrupting their assem ly lines in order to introduce new models, leading to a chronic shortage of engines throughout the war!